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Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Lets Make it Offical

I've gotten several emails and such asking about the blog and such, so I guess I should explain what has been going on lately. As all of you can see I haven't written a blog post in over four months at this point. In fact, I haven't logged into WoW in almost as long. I didn't plan on taking an extended break from the game (I still have an active account actually), but it just kind of happened after a couple of things happened both ingame and IRL.

I am still a big fan of the game, in particular I love raiding and the community that can develop around a guild who raids together. I love the struggle. I love the triumphs. I love the stupid inside jokes. Unfortunately, I've found those aspects of the game increasingly hard to find over the past few years. As I've said several times before, Cataclysm was a very tough expansion for me guild wise. Prior to cataclysm I had been in only 3 raiding guilds over 4 years, but during that one expansion I spent time in 6 or 7 different guilds. Most of them fell apart or were on the verge of falling apart when I left. It was a tough time and I considered quitting the game many times. However, I decided to take a second shot at a guild I have a lot of respect for thinking that if it worked out, it could be the long term home I've been looking for.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out. My trial was rejected for what I think are fairly nitpicky reasons. At about the same time I was laid off from my job and it was the straw that broke the camel's back (For the record, I have a new job now.). I didn't have a reason for logging in anymore, and that was good because I didn't feel like logging in anymore. I didn't mean to take a break for 4+ months, it just kind of happened.

Quick Edit: I have gotten a couple of comments asking what kind of guild would reject my trial. The simple truth is that just because I wrote a blog about moonkin doesn't mean that I'm an amazing raider. There is a lot more to raiding then knowing the theory. I've never claimed to be the best moonkin and can say for a fact that there are a lot of players out there better then me.

While I do think the reasons told to me for rejecting my trial were nitpicky, I also know that I could have performed more consistently. At the highest levels of raiding the little things matter a lot and I left myself open to critisism on a couple of occasions. Also, I think trialing at the start of an expansion when everyone is excited about the game was a mistake.

So, what does the future hold for me and this blog? I honestly don't know.

At this point, I doubt I am done with the game forever. I still feel the urge to log in and see whats going on every so often, but haven't done so yet. At the very least, I'll probably buy what ever expansion comes and try it out.

In terms of the blog, I think I'm done. I won't say I'll never write the blog again, but I doubt it. The blog has gotten increasingly hard to write over the years. When I started there were very few moonkin blogs and none of them were doing theorycrafting. On top of that, the theorycrafting was very simple in the beginning. However, over time it got harder, and Moonkin became more popular and attracted more theorycrafters. As time has gone on my blog has become tougher to write and less and less relevant. Given all that, it is probably time to put the blog to rest. But who knows, If I get back into the game in a big way maybe I'll get back into the blog in a big way as well.

I do want to say a few thank you's if this does end up being my final post.

First and foremost I must thank all of my readers over the years. I never imagined that the blog would become as big and influential as it was for a time.

I also want to thank Blizzard, GC, and the developers I had contact with (Chris and Chadd). Thanks for making a great game and getting me into Betas.

Thanks to Phaelia for providing a guide and helping my blog to grow early on. I wish you were still around.

Thanks to the many moonkin over the years who helped the blog both directly and indirectly over the years. This is by no means a complete list: Erdluf, Lissanna, Murmurs, Hamlet, Relevart, and many, many others I am forgetting at the moment.

A big thanks to all my great guildies over the years. Necro, Jeeves, Abid (rip) at FoC; Dchaney, Lotsapots, Doom, Ardin at WA. Sevrenwinter, Myraxa, Osmand, Keahe, Auro, and Syni at LoE. Finally at Skunkworks Infinitum, Neatpete, and Olducu thank you for your support.

63 comments:

Iskalla
said...

This is so sad...I've been reading your blog for years now, and I always came here when I had any doubts on how to improve my moonkin.I honestly don't know where to find a blog/forum like this one, so for the last few months I've been kind of short on moonkin advices. And now you're definetly leaving!I hope that's an improve for your life, but I really liked this thing (so much I felt I had to say something, even though I hadn't comment once in these years ^^u)Anyway, best of lucks and thank you for all the help given to all moonkins :)

Just wanted to write a thank you. Even though I have actually always played Bear and Cat, I have really enjoyed your writings over the years about WoW, raiding, Druids, and Moonkins. Thank you again, and take care :-)

I'm sorry to see you go, Graylo, but these things happen.May the road rise up to meet you.May the wind always be at your back.May the sun shine warm upon your face,and rains fall soft upon your fields.And until we meet again, cheers.

Good luck with things Graylo. I've been a reader for years now, and I always enjoyed reading your views on various aspects of WoW. Thank you for all of the time you gave to us and the rest of the community, we truly did appreciate it.

I really hope you change your mind at some point and keep the blog going. I have been playing moonkin since vanilla and I've never been one to look at tons and tons of numbers/theorycrafting. However your gear lists and thoughts on gear were very much appreciated. A good blog does not need tons of math but some good stories and some good advice. Thanks again

Thank you Graylo for the years of advice and musings. Many will miss your gear lists, but I wish miss your opinions, ideas, and innovations. I havn't played the game in a year yet still stop by to see what your latest thoughts are. Good luck in all you do and farewell!

I'm sad and disappointed you won't be blogging any more. I feel this was by far the best guide, especially the gear list, and I checked it all the time. Thanks for all of the time and effort you put in for so long and I wish you all the best!! I will definitely miss the blog!

As vert often I jump on thé wagon kindle of late on thé game! But, I just wanted to thank you fort aller thé good work you have done. You ère zone of the most estimated boomkin on the game. Tour insight will be missed fort sûre.

I've read your blog since I started playing a moonkin about 4 years ago. I really enjoyed your way of writing, it's easy to understand, but very interesting. No matter what information about moonkin I needed, I looked here and mostly found an answer.Thank you for all years of writing this blog, I really hope that you find a guild that matches your expectations.Greetings Cometesnovus

Graylo - you're a great guy and it easily could have gone the other way. This actually came up as we had a lot of quits/retirements at the very end of T14 (including myself - put myself out to pasture), and with all the recruitment and the short roster, someone at one point asked: if Graylo had app'd now, what would have happened? FWIW, your app threads generated 34 pages of forum discussion in total, which is the longest I can remember seeing.

I wouldn't let it worry you; in a sense a blog that brings a bit of wow joy to hundreds or thousands of readers is a bigger "contribution" than just clearing content and will be more memorable.

Anyhow, it's never easy to say no to a player you like, much less one as talented as yourself, regardless of how you feel like the balance of 34 pages of discussion leans. It's heartbreaking to be your last stop, though.

Anyhow, you're still welcome, if the mood takes you, to pop on and run BGs or LFR or whatnot with the rest of us retirees and so on. I know inf & myself and many probably still consider you part of the family, given your history. If not, I hope your future endeavors treat you well.

/supersadfaceyour blog was always #1 spot for me to look for my moonkin information, i main a monk now but i still liked to drop in every now and again to see how my feathered friends were doing. All your hard work is greatly appreciated and i hope the future looks bright for you and whatever you do, wow or no wow

p.s. wtf kind of guild rejects a application from Graylo, paragon?if i was leader of my guild and saw an applicant using the Graylo name, real or not they'd be accepted and promoted ASAP just for having the balls to call themself by that name

I have been playing a moonkin since 2006. When I first started, I had no idea what I was doing and just played casually, but when I started raiding and was looking for tips, this blog was THE PLACE to go for information. Thank you so much for all the hard work and time. Good luck to!

I personally feel like WoW has done the same thing to me and most of my friends. After wrath, their was no real reason to care for the story of warcraft. I had an active account but never logged on since Christmas, for nearly the same reasons.

I've known about this blog for years now, and I really only use your site for the gear list, and EJ for simcraft. With that said, I am sad to see this blog end, but at the same time relieved that I am not the only person who feels their passion for WoW has been drained.

You've made a solid contribution to the WoW community, and we all thank you. I personally hope to see you doing great things again, very soon.

I am very sad to see this be the end. First Quieth quit now you. I do wish you a happy life and know that I couldn't of become a Moonkin without you.You have always been my go to. Start of a new xpac and there you always were with all the wonderful info I needed. At 60 years old tackling the way of the moonkin was always easy with you sittin on my shoulder guiding me down the right paths.I will miss you so much. Thank you,Lunaorchid of Durotan

Greylo, I want to say thank you for your blog. I read it for years, and IMHO was one of the best moonkin sources available. I played a moonkin for a lot of years, in a very stable and supportive progression guild. Actually, one of the very few first day guilds still on the server. I too signed out just before MOP. I didn't particularly like the changes for moonkin, but I still have that itch to log back in. Glad you got a new gig, but if you ever started blogging the community would nor assuredly welcome you back.

Graylo Master of the Moonkin, Thankyou for your generosity. For sharing your thoughts with us, your non egotistical open and honest information has helped make playing a moonkin a pleasure.I will miss your posts as i have been reading them from the start and was sad to see your post today even though I gave up my moon passion when I completed the legendary staff quest for many of the reasons you have spoken about.But people like you are what made wow great! not the game so go into the real world knowing you made a difference, enjoy your life in whatever you do. Thank you!

For what it's worth, my wife and I started playing shortly after BC was released. She rolled a Tauren Druid, and as soon as she could pick a spec (relatively late, if I recall correctly), she went Boomkin and never looked back. Throughout her ventures through Azeroth, Outlands, Northrend, and beyond, she has always tried to stay on top of her game by consulting your site (and spending hours fiddling with her gear and hitting Dr Boom before dummies came along)

I know your insight has guided her more than any other theorycrafting site, including EJ, because you took the "In Reality, and For Us Mere Mortal Players" aspect into consideration.

Thank you so much for your research and guidance and having been an immense help in contributing to her (and indirectly my) enjoyment of the game.

Been reading your blog for years. Thank you for all the help over that time, from my small beginnings getting used to the spec in WotLK to where I am now (top 10 EU). Hope you're back sooner than later!

Longtime reader and just saw this now. I knew you were taking a break but it seems this has been happening for a while. I too have been reading since WotLK era and always checked out your blog for tips, breakpoints gear choices and sad that it is at it's end! Just wanted to say thanks for the good times, helping a Druid own at the meters and have fun doing it. I'll still come around in hopes of even just an update! It is and always will be fun reading your posts and wish you good luck on your journey away from Azeroth!

Thank you very much for your blog.I used to be a moonkin back in Wotlk, probably one of the best of my medium-pop-servers, and I gotta say that's mostly thanks to you. Thanks to your blog, I learned to love theory-crafting about the Wotlk moonkin rotation. Back then, I remember pointing every aspiring moonkin towards your blog, the BIS-lists used to be particularly helpful since, as you said, there weren't that many moonkin resources back then.

I left wow prior to cata and never truly came back, I also couldn't fall in love with Starsurge and its weird instant-trigger that would sometimes take a little to activate (despite the tooltip indicating it already being ready).

But man, I loved those wotlk moonkin days, I think you did too, and it showed!

Thank you for your expertise, dedication and knowledge on moonkins. I've been a faithful reader for a few years now.

I still remember digging the web around trying to find advice, guidance, something!!! and had not the best of luck... until I found your blog :) .. very very VERY helpful, lots of info. and advice! tips. It really helped me improve my raiding by at 400% at least.

I sent you an email once 'cause another moonkin on my guild was literally kicking my 4ss...that was long time ago. But your blog, comments and recommendations allowed me to improve.

Anyway, is sad to see you go, nevertheless life is life as it is. All of us will do the same eventually.

I do not usually join forums or comment on blogs but this is a time that requires me to.

I am a below average player that loves to raid and I have used your blog to make myself a useful Boomkin to my raid. As a result I have been able to get myself a spot on some very good raid teams.

I have been reading your blog since 2006. I am sad to see you go.

I hope you come back to WoW even if you do not blog at all. Perhaps it's time to just have fun with a game that I suspect became less enjoyable given the amount of time and energy that you have put into it blogging about it.

A huge thank you to you for all the help you have given me over the years. Come back and play this game through to whatever end Blizzard sees for it.

I guess I am a bit late. It is so sad that you will stop blogging since ever since I started my night elf druid (realising that night elves could not be a mage back then) (even before BC?), I have been following your blog just to even have some meager understanding of how to play my character.

Even after I stopped playing during WotLK, I still popped by to read your blogs just to reminiscence every few months.

even though I quit playing WOW before Cata came out, i still liked to check out your blog now and then to see what was up in the world of Moonkins. be assured you will leave a huge hole in the wow community with your knowledge and insite into what was formerly the best class in the game. have a good one, and thanks for all that you did.

You are greatly missed. Not just your personal insights but also the guidance you provided for myself and other Moonkins. I hope that someday you can return and that we can look forward to reading your blogs about the spec that we all love so much. I hope all is well!

Graylo, you are the moonkin that shaped the destiny of my moonkin. I felt like a failure in Cataclysm. MoP has been much more moonkin friendly. I've missed reading your posts. I've missed reading them big time :( I hope you're doing well.

I just want to say thank you!!Back in game after a long break i'm really, really sad because of your goodbye.Thank you for the great blog you've done! For the inspiring postings, for the BIS lists, for the fun it was to work with all the theorycraft you published!